Blogs

Understanding Limits At $100 A Minute

  • Posted on: 14 December 2016
  • By: David Trammel

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My blog post for today, is a lesson in Limits.

If I gave you one hundred dollars for a minute of your time, you would consider that good deal, wouldn't you? After all, you get over 525 thousand minutes a year in your Life, trading me one of those minutes for that much money seems like a very good deal. Doesn't it?

A Do It Yourself Haybox Tutorial

  • Posted on: 15 June 2016
  • By: David Trammel

Green Wizard AT sent in this tutorial on how to turn a common plastic camping cooler into a efficient haybox substitute. Even better after you cook that killer chili, you can then remove the filling and ice down a twelve pack of beer, lol.

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How to Make and Use a Haybox Cooker

Using a haybox cooker for slow-cooked meals saves fossil energy, human energy, time, and money. One beauty of this method of cooking is that you are free to pursue homestead or home business tasks while the food cooks. There is no danger of fire from an unattended pot, and if you have small children at home, there is no danger of their pulling hot pans off the stove. It is also a great method for slow-cooking or braising tougher pieces of meat from well-exercised, pasture-raised animals or that spare rooster. Economical dried beans and peas can be cooked until tender without babysitting the cooktop or plugging in a slow cooker.

Clothing and Laundry in the Long Descent

  • Posted on: 1 February 2016
  • By: Elkaco

Guest Post by Elaine Codling:

Many of the machines that frame our lives in the modern world are ‘skill-saving’ rather than ‘labour-saving’ as we generally think of them. If you look around you’ll find very few that are actually labour-saving. That is: sparing us the drudgery of difficult, repetitive, non-productive work. The shining example of a labour saving machine is the washer. Even before I saw Hans Rosling’s fascinating TED talk “The Magic Washing Machine” I knew that the development of the automatic clothes washer was a huge step forward for women in the western world. His talk made me realize that of all the modern domestic appliances available it’s the washing machine I would be miss the most.

Forestry Part 1 – Selecting Crop Trees

  • Posted on: 30 January 2016
  • By: David Trammel

Guest Post by David Coulter
Part One - Forestry Part 1 – Selecting Crop Trees

This would be a good point to go over how trees grow. If they are kept densely packed initially, they will tend to grow straight and tall just like some un-thinned vegetable in your garden. They will be spindly and, beyond a certain point, prone to disease though. Kept too long in that condition and the entire stand may die off. This is particularly true in even aged conifer plantations. If less than 1/3 of the crown is green in a conifer plantation, the stand as whole is in danger of dying.

Forestry Part 1 – Selecting Crop Trees

  • Posted on: 23 January 2016
  • By: David Trammel

Guest Post by David Coulter

Introduction

This article is the first in a series on basic intensive small scale forestry for producing firewood and timber while improving the quality of your woodlot. My experience is limited to a woodlot in eastern Ontario Canada. As a consequence, what I have to say is most applicable to forests typical to northeast North America. I'm not a professional forester, just gifted amateur. I've logged my own woodlot to provide my own firewood for 17 years. Firewood is the principle means by which I heat my house in the winter.

Power Down - Are You Ready?

  • Posted on: 15 January 2016
  • By: Cathy McGuire

An ice storm sent the power crashing off throughout the Willamette Valley this month. At first, just a two-hour morning blackout, but that same afternoon the power went down and stayed down for 20 hours. This happened about an hour before sunset.

As I put my backup plans in place, I couldn’t help but remember that the Oregon Seismic Safety Advisory Commission had recently issued a document stating that in the event of a severe earthquake (which is overdue here), it could be 3 to 4 months before power would be restored to the Valley. All through the night and the next day, I held that fact in mind, as I both prided myself on being mostly prepared and found out what pieces were still not in place. For those who either haven’t started preparing, or who haven’t been tested recently, I want to describe the situation and the lessons I learned.

The Lazy Gardener

  • Posted on: 1 March 2015
  • By: Cathy McGuire

(Introducing Cathy McGuire's new blog, "The Lazy Gardener")

Although I am an avid gardener, I confess that I am always looking for the ways that involve less physical work, less maintenance, less time and effort. That probably makes me a natural for permaculture. I haven’t taken a course, and I would be the last person to call myself an expert on any kind of gardening, but I wanted to share my experience with those people who feel perhaps that they can’t do it unless they do it hundred percent.

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